


and it's calling every night

by orphan_account



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Has Issues, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-03-18 17:39:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3578175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky gets injured on a mission and tries to hide it. This is the aftermath.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and it's calling every night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EveryDayBella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveryDayBella/gifts).



> Title from Mark Owen's "Ghost". This was originally intended to be a lot longer, but unfortunate life got in the way, as it does at times. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

Bucky wakes, sometime before dawn, with a hoarse shout, like he does nearly every night now. His heart his hammering, hair slick around his forehead and sticking to his skin. He can just remember the last vestiges of his dream -- _clawing at his face, sloughing off a mask of bone and muscle and blood_ \-- but it fades as the pain of his shoulder makes itself known again. He groans, and he must've been screaming in his sleep because his voice cracks and it turns into something more of a whisper.

Something shifts to his right, and he reaches blindly for his rifle. Jagged fear tears through his stomach when his fingers only find hard ground. His breathing his harsh to his own ears.

"Bucky," Steve's voice comes through the dark. "Its okay, you're safe, I've got you."

One large, warm hand moves to wrap around his arm, and Bucky jerks back out of instinct. Steve mumbles an apology, and makes to move back, curling in on himself, cautious and slow. Its how Steve's been around him since the long walk back from Azzano, since the first time Steve -- or the man he'd thought of then as the impostor, the stranger wearing Steve's face -- had touched him easily, without thought, and Bucky had nearly cried, had nearly stuck Steve, rage and fear and shame coursing through him all at once.

Bucky reaches up and grabs ahold of the rough cotton of Steve's undershirt in one fist, tugs him closer. "No. No, I--" He realizes he doesn't know what he wants to say. There's been a gulf between them, uncrossable, for so long now. He lets the cloth slip from his fingers, his hand fall. He feels his face heating up. "You just startled me, that's all."

Thankfully, Steve seems to sense the change in Bucky, and knows what to do. "Can I?" He asks, voice not much more than a whisper. Bucky nods once, and lets himself be pulled fully into his friend's embrace, back to chest. He melts.

He's been starved of touch, but hasn't let anyone give it to him. Oh, he'd tried, once or twice -- three weeks back they'd spent the night in a small French town. The girl, small and sweet and strawberry blonde, had certainly been interested, but he hadn't even been able to get it up. She was sympathetic instead of cruel, and he'd fingered her to orgasm in thanks, but he'd felt off-center and guilty afterwards.

Not that-- not that lying here now with Steve was like fucking a dame, but. It was nice, to be touched.

"This okay, Buck?" Steve rumbled -- and it was a rumble, Steve's already deep voice booming through that new, broad chest -- and Bucky could feel it in all the places they were pressed up together.

"Yeah," he sighs.

"I'm trying not to lean on your injured shoulder--"

"Its fine, its okay." It still hurt, of course, but it was a dull throb compared to the sharp, paralyzing ache it had been earlier, and anyway Steve's body heat was distracting him from anything else.

But Steve was never one to let something lie. "Its not okay. Bucky, you scared me today. You scared me so goddamn much. You gotta-- why didn't you tell me you were hurt?"

Touch must loosen his tongue. "Didn't wanna be sent to medical. I can't--" He shudders. "No doctors."

Steve nods, his chin dipping and bumping against Bucky's neck. "What Hydra did to you--"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Bucky--"

He turns in Steve's grip, cutting him off. He can see Steve's eyes too clearly in the darkness. That's one of the things Hydra did to him. "No. I don't want to talk about it." He takes a deep, shaky breath. "Not now, at least. Later, please?" His voice gets high on the /please/. Its hard to read the other man's expression, but Steve nods anyway.

Its just the two of them facing each other in the silence, and Bucky's almost thinking of settling back down for sleep, but then Steve's leaning forward, still with that strange emotion in his eyes. He stops just bare centimeters from Bucky's lips.

"This okay, Buck?" He repeats, and _oh_.

His breath catches. Its suddenly obvious that this was always how things were gonna end up between them. Before he can overthink himself, he's saying, "Yes, yes, please, Steve. This is oka--"

Steve kisses him quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic on AO3, huzzah!


End file.
